cult film freak: OLIVIA HUSSEY IN BOB CLARK'S CULT SLASHER 'BLACK CHRISTMAS'

Olivia Hussey in BLACK CHRISTMAS Year: 1974 Rating: **1/2

In the case of Bob Clark's 1974 cult-horror BLACK CHRISTMAS, Christmas comes before HALLOWEEN since John Carpenter's 1978 slasher took some inspiration from not only a killer stalking a group of pretty young ladies (college instead of high school), but the camera sporadically becomes his shaky, formidable perspective...

But not for long enough as most of the would-be victims remain alive for too long: except poor Lynne Griffin's curiously foreboding shy girl, seeming perfect for the sole survivor — described by a loose, foul-mouthed Margot Kidder (more befitting a sex comedy than horror) as a professional virgin — but lovely-lithe Olivia Hussey's our final girl...

Olivia Hussey in BLACK CHRISTMAS with Keir Dullea

And while meek, passive, she's anything but sexually-inexperienced with a melodramatic side-story involving temperamental beau Keir Dullea railing against an abortion — his entire purpose is to provide a red-herring for the faceless killer, always a phone call away...

Making BLACK CHRISTMAS more an offbeat ensemble-thriller than body-count slasher (including a lush den-mom; the first victim's affable boyfriend Art Hindle; nice yet ugly girl Andrea Maritn; token cop John Saxon), and, ultimately, the primary focus of the villain— young girls in a sorority house — isn't the primary focus of the movie itself.